LISA RISTING | staff writer
The rain proved unsuccessful at dampening the spirit of Vagabond Village, a TOMS Shoes event last Wednesday, March 4. Originally scheduled to take place outside in University Village, the event was moved to Wilden Hall due to the rain, but lost no momentum.
TOMS Shoes has begun their second Vagabond tour with 15 individuals, deemed “TOMS Vagabonds,” climbing into vans full of shoes and setting out with excitement to share their passion for the company and cause.
“TOMS is really into grassroots marketing. We don’t have huge advertisements or billboards down the street,” TOMS Vagabond Kelli Dunavant said. “We’re very into getting to meet the face of TOMS.”
The Vagabonds’ goal is to build relationships and share the vision of TOMS Shoes with high school and college campuses across the nation.
This will be done by showing the documentary “For Tomorrow: The TOMS Shoes Story” and selling TOMS products.
“Young people are the voice of the future, so the more people we get to [reach], the more social change we’re going to make,” TOMS Vagabond Krysten Richardson said.
Senior communication studies major Janay Poole is a current intern with TOMS Shoes and is the campus representative for Azusa Pacific. Through research on the TOMS Company that started with a class project in the fall of 2008, Poole has developed a growing interest in their cause and a passion for spreading it throughout the Azusa Pacific campus.
“Every time I talk to people really involved with TOMS, or anytime I watch the documentary, I get so stoked again because it really is a passionate company that can help change the world,” Poole said.
Poole planned and organized Vagabond Village for the APU campus. The event included not only the showing of the TOMS documentary and an opportunity to purchase comfortable TOMS products, but also three different musical appearances. Chris Garcia-Morett, member of the band Bleeker Street Company, performed during the evening and donned his own pair of TOMS while voicing his support for the concept of the company.
“I like the conscious consumerism,” Chris Garcia-Morett said. “We don’t need shoes, but its something we’re going to have anyway so we might as well help someone else.”
Other performers at the event included band Brother and singer Lisa Devlin.
Along with great music, the Vagabond Village event also included the Style Your Sole party, allowing students to purchase solid color TOMS and have them painted or decorated to their liking. Current and previous APU students were present and hard at work putting their artistic flair on students’ purchases.
Alumna Lauren Cray returned as an artist for the TOMS event as a favor to Poole and as a supporter of TOMS.
“It’s an awesome ministry—how straightforward it is and how tangibly it helps in a very direct way,” Cray said.
The concept of “One for One” is the foundation of TOMS Shoes and the reason why the organization is so unique. The documentary, “For Tomorrow: The TOMS Shoes Story,” gave students a deeper insight into the reality of how TOMS Shoes carries out their promise to give a pair
of shoes for every shoe purchased. It featured the very fi rst “shoe drop” in Argentina in which TOMS representatives
actually got to place TOMS on the feet of people there in the communities.
“Some of them have never had shoes in their life and it’s almost a private, intimate thing,” Richardson said about her experience on a influential shoe drop. “We as Americans sometimes tend to think we’re giving so much to these people, but really they’re giving so much more to us with open arms to say they love us for who we are.”
TOMS is not stopping with shoes. They have recently teamed with Element skateboards to produce a TOMS skateboard and are excited to be sponsored by the Dave Matthews Band.
Vagabond Village was a perfect time for students to see the heart of TOMS Shoes and partake in supporting the company and mission with their purchases. Whether they were listening to the music of the bands, waiting for their shoes to be painted or just talking with the Vagabonds or other TOMS supporters, students had the opportunity to see the faces of TOMS.
Because of connections that were made during this event and the interest in the APU community, the Vagabonds will be returning on March 14 to team up with Rezlife to raise money for nonprofi t organizations.
You can also follow the Vagabonds on the TOMS blog and find your perfect type of TOMS at www.tomsshoesblog.com
